COR reforms pass Queensland parliament

Changes to the HVNL giving new powers to authorised officers have passed the Queensland parliament ahead of their national introduction

Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey

The penultimate step in introducing chain of responsibility (COR) reforms to the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) has taken place, with the Queensland parliament passing the final amendments to the legislation.

Approved earlier this year by states and territories party to the HVNL – New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia – the amendments needed to be passed in the Queensland parliament before being adopted by other jurisdictions.

Having been passed, the new obligations will apply from October 1 this year, when the full raft of changes to the HVNL take effect.

As ATN reported earlier this year, the amendments passed yesterday will strengthen the investigative and enforcement powers of authorised officers under the HVNL.

Those officers, who already have the power to carry out heavy vehicle inspections, include officials from NSW’s Road and Maritime Services, VicRoads, Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads and National Heavy Vehicle Regulator inspectors in South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

According to law firm Cooper Grace Ward, the changes will specifically allow authorised officers to require fleet owners or managers to:

Produce a fleet or class of vehicles for inspection;

Produce a driver’s licence where a person needs one; and

Identify third parties who might have information about the heavy vehicle.

The law change will allow an authorised officer to issue a prohibition notice to a person when they believe heavy vehicle activity is taking place that will pose an immediate or imminent serious risk to a person.

It will also allow the NHVR to publish court outcomes, including the offence with which a person is convicted and the penalties imposed – though it will not be able to publish information that could identify the person convicted.

The changes come ahead of a planned review of the HVNL, with its terms of reference to be formally set following a meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Council in November.

Queensland minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey said in the Queensland parliament last night that he expected the review to begin soon after that meeting took place.

"It will be a back-to-basics review of the legislation and will call on the knowledge and experience of independent experts to inform and provide advice to develop a best practice legislative framework," he says.